NORWICH— Hundreds of marchers and riders and thousands of spectators celebrated the start of the Christmas season Saturday with the annual Winter Festival Parade.

"I've never missed one," Jackie Dehler said. "I don't even live in Norwich."

Dehler, who lives in Hanover, said when it comes to parades, "I like them all."

"This is the best parade Norwich has," Tammi Stanley said. She came with her twin 7-year-old sons, Jackson and William. They were watching for Occum volunteer firefighter Scott Stanley. "We like it every year," Tammi Stanley said.

Led by the Norwich police, the parade stepped off at 1 p.m. sharp at Chelsea Parade, and crowds greeted the arrival of Santa Claus on his sleigh in Franklin Square more than 90 minutes later.

"Is everybody being good?" Santa called to children waving to him from the sidewalk.

"Yes," the children replied.

"All right," Santa said.

Between the police and Santa was a variety of marchers, floats and performers, including members of the City Council and Norwich's legislative delegation, Otis Library, the Leffingwell House Museum, the Greater Norwich Chamber of Commerce, Cub Scouts, Girl Scouts and students in the school's D.A.R.E. program.

"It's all community efforts," parade chairman David Wigfield said.

Wigfield said he was pleased at how well the parade went. "We had no gaps. We fight that every year."

The Norwich Free Academy Marching Band played "Deck the Halls" as the marchers arrived in Franklin Square.

The Ancient Mariners, a fife-and-drum corps whose members dress as old-time sailors, also provided music, as did the Norwich-based cover band Melaena, whose members rode on a flatbed trailer and channeled Bruce Springsteen, performing "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town."

All of Norwich's fire departments joined in the parade and festively decorated many of their fire trucks. One from the East Great Plain Department featured a giant inflatable Snoopy wearing a Santa hat.

Norwich Public Utilities decorated its 3-foot-tall remote-control Tilly talking truck, as well as one of its regular-size trucks.

Probably the largest contingent in the parade were several dozen young students from All the Right Moves Dance Center in Norwich.

"They have to do extra practices to get ready for the parade," Lisa Rickey, of Norwich said. Rickey's daughter performed with the dancers, who wore leotards in the cold weather.

Page 2 of 2 - Rickey's family came with another family, the Michauds. They were festively dressed in Santa hats and wacky sunglasses.

Other dance groups braving the cold in spandex were students from the Lion's Den Dance Company in New London and 3-D Dance Studio in Norwich.

The final float in front of Santa, from Greentree Tree Service in Norwich, featured the Grinch riding on his sleigh full of stolen Christmas presents.

After Santa arrived in Franklin Square, he posed for photos with young children and their parents.

"Excellent," said Scott Sortwell, who came with his wife, Michelle, and their 2 ½-year-old child, Alex. "It was very good."